Investment Fraud Lawyer Blog

Bank of New York Mellon has been sued in separate civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Attorney General of New York seeking damages in excess of $2 billion related to BNY’s alleged practice of fraudulently misleading and overcharging public pension funds, universities, and other clients for foreign exchange (FX) currency transactions. In essence, the complaints allege that BNY Mellon profited by giving its foreign exchange clients the worst exchange rates of the day, and even created fake trades.

Continue reading "Forex Fraud Case Reveals the Value of Whistleblowers" »

The new whistleblower program that pays big cash rewards for tips about investment fraud has already resulted in a large number of high quality tips to the SEC, according to a news story this week on CNBC. According to the report, the SEC expects to receive 30,000 tips this year—just one year after the program was created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform act. SEC Enforcement Director is quoted as saying “we’re gonna get information hopefully sooner on in the life cycle of a fraudulent scheme, so there’s less investor loss, less harm.” In addition to helping the feds detect fraud in the securities industry, however, the program promises to pay big financial rewards to the whistleblowers whom report it.

Continue reading "Wall Street Whistleblower Program Already Paying Off" »

Prosecutors have taken over whistleblower lawsuits against Bank of New York Mellon and State Street Corp. that accuse the banks of fraud in overcharging public pension funds by tens of millions of dollars for foreign-exchange transactions, according to a Reuters article edited by Lincoln Feast, entitled “Prosecutors widen currency probes: report.”

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Wall Street may face a wave of lawsuits under an expanded version of the Martin Act, New York’s securities anti-fraud statute, if the newly elected Governor of New York has his way, according to a Wall Street Journal Deal Journal blog entitled, “And the Next Mortal Threat to Wall Street Is…”.

Continue reading "Proposed Changes to New York Law Would Make Wall Street More Accountable" »

Merrill Lynch and other Wall Street firms sold the riskiest tranches of collateralized debt obligations (“CDOs”), not just to institutions, but to individual investors, as safe investments, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article by Dan Fitzgerald titled “Didn’t See Risk, and Got Stung.” Now that the CDOs have imploded, and investors are seeking recovery of their losses, Merrill is telling them that risk disclosure documents and the investors’ supposed sophistication mean they cannot recover. Merrill is wrong for a number of reasons.

Continue reading "Wealthy Individuals Have Been Victimized By Wall Street's CDO Fraud" »

According to a recent Bloomberg National Poll, more than 50% of Americans despise Wall Street and favor punishment of the bankers who caused the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The majority of poll participants -- 56 percent -- say big financial companies are more interested in enriching themselves at the expense of ordinary people.

Continue reading "It's Official - Most Americans Despise Wall Street" »